School administrators and public health officials can ensure safe and supportive environments and reassure families, teachers, and staff by planning and using comprehensive prevention strategies for in-person learning and communicating those efforts. Schools can work with parents to understand their preferences and concerns for in-person learning. School administrators can promote health equity by ensuring all students, teachers, and staff have resources to support physical and mental health.
School administrators can offer modified job responsibilities for staff at higher risk for severe illness who have not been fully vaccinated while protecting individual privacy. Administrators should consider adaptations and alternatives to prevention strategies when serving people with disabilities , while maintaining efforts to protect all children and staff from COVID CDC recommends that all teachers, staff and eligible students be vaccinated as soon as possible.
However, schools have a mixed population of both people who are fully vaccinated and people who are not fully vaccinated. This requires K administrators to make decisions about the use of COVID prevention strategies in their schools and is why CDC recommends universal indoor masking regardless of vaccination status at all levels of community transmission.
Together with local public health officials, school administrators should consider multiple factors when they make decisions about implementing layered prevention strategies against COVID Since schools typically serve their surrounding communities, decisions should be based on the school population, families and students served, as well as their communities.
The primary factors to consider include:. CDC recommends universal indoor masking, physical distancing to the extent possible, and additional prevention strategies to protect students, teachers, and staff. Schools should not exclude students from in-person learning to keep a minimum distance requirement; layering multiple prevention strategies is essential when physical distancing of at least 3 feet is not possible at all times.
COVID vaccination among all eligible students as well as teachers, staff, and household members is the most critical strategy to help schools safely resume full operations. A growing body of evidence suggests that people who are fully vaccinated against COVID are less likely to become infected and develop symptoms and are at substantially reduced risk from severe illness and death from COVID compared with unvaccinated people.
Only a small proportion of fully vaccinated people get infected breakthrough infections , even with the Delta variant. Moreover, when these infections occur among vaccinated people, they tend to be milder than among those who are unvaccinated. However, preliminary evidence suggests that fully vaccinated people who are infected with the Delta variant can be infectious and can spread the virus to others.
To reduce the risk of becoming infected with the Delta variant and spreading it to others, students, teachers, and school staff should continue to use layered prevention strategies including universal masking in schools.
Schools can promote vaccinations among teachers, staff, families, and eligible students by providing information about COVID vaccination, encouraging vaccine trust and confidence, and establishing supportive policies and practices that make getting vaccinated as easy and convenient as possible.
When promoting COVID vaccination, consider that certain communities and groups have been disproportionately affected by COVID illness and severe outcomes, and some communities might have experiences that affect their trust and confidence in the healthcare system.
Teachers, staff, students, and their families may differ in their level of vaccine confidence. School administrators can adjust their messages to the needs of their families and community and involve trusted community messengers as appropriate, including those on social media, to promote COVID vaccination among people who may be hesitant to receive it.
When teachers, staff, and students consistently and correctly wear a mask, they protect others as well as themselves. Consistent and correct mask use is especially important indoors and in crowded settings, when physical distancing cannot be maintained. Learn more here. Schools should provide masks to those students who need them including on buses , such as students who forgot to bring their mask or whose families are unable to afford them.
No disciplinary action should be taken against a student who does not have a mask as described in the U. Because of the importance of in-person learning, schools should implement physical distancing to the extent possible within their structures but should not exclude students from in-person learning to keep a minimum distance requirement.
In general, CDC recommends people who are not fully vaccinated maintain physical distance of at least 6 feet from other people who are not in their household. However, several studies from the school year show low COVID transmission levels among students in schools that had less than 6 feet of physical distance when the school implemented and layered other prevention strategies, such as the use of masks. Based on studies from school year, CDC recommends schools maintain at least 3 feet of physical distance between students within classrooms, combined with indoor mask wearing to reduce transmission risk.
When it is not possible to maintain a physical distance of at least 3 feet, such as when schools cannot fully re-open while maintaining these distances, it is especially important to layer multiple other prevention strategies, such as screening testing, cohorting, improved ventilation, handwashing and covering coughs and sneezes, staying home when sick with symptoms of infectious illness including COVID, and regular cleaning to help reduce transmission risk.
Mask use by all students, teachers, staff, and visitors is particularly important when physical distance cannot be maintained.
Cohorting: Cohorting means keeping people together in a small group and having each group stay together throughout an entire day. Cohorting can be used to limit the number of students, teachers, and staff who come in contact with each other, especially when it is challenging to maintain physical distancing, such as among young children, and particularly in areas of moderate-to-high transmission levels. The use of cohorting can limit the spread of COVID between cohorts but should not replace other prevention measures within each group.
Cohorting people who are fully vaccinated and people who are not fully vaccinated into separate cohorts is not recommended. Screening testing identifies infected people, including those with or without symptoms or before development of symptoms who may be contagious, so that measures can be taken to prevent further transmission.
In K schools, screening testing can help promptly identify and isolate cases, quarantine those who may have been exposed to COVID and are not fully vaccinated, and identify clusters to reduce the risk to in-person education. CDC guidance provides that people who are fully vaccinated do not need to participate in screening testing and do not need to quarantine if they do not have any symptoms.
Decisions regarding screening testing may be made at the state or local level. Screening testing may be most valuable in areas with substantial or high community transmission levels, in areas with low vaccination coverage, and in schools where other prevention strategies are not implemented. More frequent testing can increase effectiveness, but feasibility of increased testing in schools needs to be considered. Screening testing should be done in a way that ensures the ability to maintain confidentiality of results and protect student, teacher, and staff privacy.
Screening testing can be used to help evaluate and adjust prevention strategies and provide added protection for schools that are not able to provide optimal physical distance between students.
Screening testing should be offered to students who have not been fully vaccinated when community transmission is at moderate, substantial, or high levels Table 1 ; at any level of community transmission, screening testing should be offered to all teachers and staff who have not been fully vaccinated.
To be effective, the screening program should test at least once per week, and rapidly within 24 hours report results. Screening testing more than once a week might be more effective at interrupting transmission. Testing in low-prevalence settings might produce false positive results, but testing can provide an important prevention strategy and safety net to support in-person education.
To facilitate safe participation in sports, extracurricular activities, and other activities with elevated risk such as activities that involve singing, shouting, band, and exercise that could lead to increased exhalation , schools should consider implementing screening testing for participants who are not fully vaccinated. Schools can routinely test student athletes, participants, coaches, and trainers, and other people such as adult volunteers who are not fully vaccinated and could come into close contact with others during these activities.
Schools should consider implementing screening testing of participants who are not fully vaccinated up to 24 hours before sporting, competition, or extracurricular events.
Schools can use different screening testing strategies for lower-risk sports. High-risk sports and extracurricular activities should be virtual or canceled in areas of high community transmission unless all participants are fully vaccinated.
Funding provided through the ELC Reopening Schools award is primarily focused on providing needed resources to implement screening testing programs in schools aligned with the CDC recommendations. Improving ventilation is an important COVID prevention strategy that can reduce the number of virus particles in the air. Along with other preventive strategies , including wearing a well-fitting, multi-layered mask, bringing fresh outdoor air into a building helps keep virus particles from concentrating inside.
This can be done by opening multiple doors and windows, using child-safe fans to increase the effectiveness of open windows, and making changes to the HVAC or air filtration systems. During transportation, open or crack windows in buses and other forms of transportation, if doing so does not pose a safety risk. Keeping windows open a few inches improves air circulation. For more specific information about maintenance, use of ventilation equipment, actions to improve ventilation, and other ventilation considerations, refer to:.
Additional ventilation recommendations for different types of school buildings can be found in the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers ASHRAE schools and universities guidance document pdf icon external icon. Please see question B-7 of the U. Department of Education Uses of Funds pdf icon external icon guidance for these programs. People should practice handwashing and respiratory etiquette covering coughs and sneezes to keep from getting and spreading infectious illnesses including COVID Schools can monitor and reinforce these behaviors and provide adequate handwashing supplies.
Students, teachers, and staff who have symptoms of infectious illness, such as influenza flu or COVID , should stay home and be referred to their healthcare provider for testing and care, regardless of vaccination status.
Schools should also allow flexible, non-punitive, and supportive paid sick leave policies and practices that encourage sick workers to stay home without fear of retaliation, loss of pay, or loss of employment level and provide excused absences for students who are sick.
Employers should ensure that workers are aware of and understand these policies. If a school does not have a routine screening testing program, the ability to do rapid testing on site could facilitate COVID diagnosis and inform the need for quarantine of close contacts and isolation.
Schools should educate teachers, staff, and families about when they and their children should stay home and when they can return to school. Getting tested for COVID when symptoms are compatible with COVID will help with rapid contact tracing and prevent possible spread at schools, especially if key prevention strategies masking and distancing are not in use.
Some localities might choose to use testing to shorten quarantine periods. Schools should continue to collaborate with state and local health departments , to the extent allowable by privacy laws and other applicable laws, to confidentially provide information about people diagnosed with or exposed to COVID This allows identifying which students, teachers, and staff with positive COVID test results should isolate , and which close contacts should quarantine.
See the added exception in the close contact definition for the exclusion of students in the K indoor classroom who are within 3 to 6 feet of an infected student with masking. Schools should report, to the extent allowable by applicable privacy laws, new diagnoses of COVID to their state or local health department as soon as they are informed. School officials should notify, to the extent allowable by applicable privacy laws, teachers, staff, and families of students who were close contacts as soon as possible within the same day if possible after they are notified that someone in the school has tested positive.
In general, cleaning once a day is usually enough to sufficiently remove potential virus that may be on surfaces. Disinfecting using disinfectants on the U. Environmental Protection Agency COVID list external icon removes any remaining germs on surfaces, which further reduces any risk of spreading infection.
For more information on cleaning a facility regularly, when to clean more frequently or disinfect, cleaning a facility when someone is sick, safe storage of cleaning and disinfecting products, and considerations for protecting workers who clean facilities, see Cleaning and Disinfecting Your Facility.
Provide accommodations, modifications, and assistance for students, teachers, and staff with disabilities and other health care needs when implementing COVID safety protocols:. In general, people do not need to wear masks when outdoors e. CDC recommends people who are not fully vaccinated wear a mask in crowded outdoor settings or during activities that involve sustained close contact with other people.
Fully vaccinated people might choose to wear a mask in crowded outdoor settings if they or someone in their household is immunocompromised. Universal masking is recommended during indoor physical education or recess. School-sponsored sports and extracurricular activities provide students with enrichment opportunities that can help them learn and achieve, and support their social, emotional, and mental health. Due to increased exhalation that occurs during physical activity, some sports can put players, coaches, trainers, and others at increased risk for getting and spreading COVID Close contact sports and indoor sports are particularly risky.
Similar risks might exist for other extracurricular activities, such as band, choir, theater, and school clubs that meet indoors. Prevention strategies in these activities remain important and should comply with school day policies and procedures. People who are fully vaccinated can refrain from quarantine following a known exposure if asymptomatic, facilitating continued participation in in-person learning, sports, and extracurricular activities.
Students should refrain from these activities when they have symptoms consistent with COVID and should be tested. Schools are strongly encouraged to use screening testing Table 1 for student athletes and adults e.
Workers at increased risk for severe illness from COVID include older adults and people of any age with certain underlying medical conditions if they are not fully vaccinated.
Workers who have an underlying medical condition or are taking medication that weakens their immune system may NOT be fully protected even if fully vaccinated and may need to continue using additional prevention measures. Policies and procedures addressing issues related to workers at higher risk of serious illness should be made in consultation with occupational medicine and human resource professionals, keeping in mind Equal Employment Opportunity concerns and guidance external icon.
Employers should also understand the potential mental health strains for workers during the COVID pandemic. CDC recommends that school administrators should educate workers on mental health awareness and share available mental health and counseling services. Employers should provide a supportive work environment for workers coping with job stress and building resilience , and managing workplace fatigue.
Strategies to prevent and reduce transmission are based on an approach that prioritizes the most effective practices, known as the hierarchy of controls. School employers should engage and train all workers on potential workplace hazards, what precautions should be taken to protect workers, and workplace policies for reporting concerns. Schools should ensure communication and training for all workers are frequent and easy to understand.
Additionally, schools should ensure communication and training are in a language, format, and at a literacy level that workers understand. Workers in K have the right to a safe and healthful workplace. This guidance contains recommendations to help employers provide a safe and healthy workplace free from recognized hazards that are causing, or are likely to cause, death or serious physical harm.
It also contains descriptions of mandatory safety and health standards. If a worker believes working conditions are unsafe or unhealthful, they or a representative may file a confidential safety and health complaint external icon with OSHA at any time.
The EOP should:. Tools and resources external icon from the U. Existing laws and regulations require certain vaccinations for children attending school. Schools that plan to request voluntary submission of documentation of COVID vaccination status should use the same standard protocols that are used to collect and secure other immunization or health status information from students. The protocol to collect, secure, use, and further disclose this information should comply with relevant statutory and regulatory requirements, including Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act FERPA statutory and regulatory requirements.
Policies or practices related to providing or receiving proof of COVID vaccination should comply with all relevant state, tribal, local, or territorial laws and regulations.
Additionally, school employers should advise workers with weakened immune systems about the importance of talking to their healthcare professional about the need for continued personal protective measures after vaccination. School testing gives communities, schools, and families added assurance that schools can open and remain open safely for all students. By identifying infections early, testing helps keep COVID transmission low and students in school for in-person learning, sports, and extracurricular activities.
Screening testing is likely to be most feasible in larger settings and for older children and adolescents. Before implementing COVID testing in their schools, K—12 school leaders should coordinate with public health officials to develop a testing plan and build support from students, parents, teachers, and staff and must ensure that such screening testing is administered consistent with applicable law, including the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment PPRA.
COVID testing introduces challenges that schools may not have considered in the past for example, requirements to perform on-site tests and to refer people for confirmatory testing , and public health officials can provide guidance on federal, state, and local requirements for implementing testing.
Both school leaders and public health officials should assure the testing plan has key elements in place, including:. If these elements are not in place, schools may consider referring students, teachers, and staff to community-based testing sites external icon. Collaboration among local counsel, education, and public health is recommended to ensure appropriate consent is obtained and maintained and results are maintained, used, and further disclosed with appropriate privacy and confidentiality in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act ADA external icon , Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act FERPA external icon , the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment PPRA external icon , and other applicable laws and regulations.
Random sampling can reduce costs and eliminate bias in the testing design but may require more logistics and planning.
Pooled testing increases the number of people who can be tested at once and reduces testing resources used. Pooled testing works best when the number of positives is expected to be very low. Ideally, specimens should be pooled at the laboratory rather than in the classroom.
If the pooled test result is positive, each of the samples in the pool will need to be tested individually to determine which samples are positive. This allows for faster isolation of cases and quarantine of close contacts. More frequent testing may be needed for students, teachers, staff, and adult volunteers who are not fully vaccinated and engaged in school athletics and other extracurricular activities.
Testing at least once per week is recommended for high-risk sports and extracurricular activities those that cannot be done outdoors or with masks at all community transmission levels. In areas of substantial-to-high community transmission levels, testing twice per week is recommended for participation in these activities. Additionally, if the school is not tracking COVID vaccination status of participants and support teacher and staff screening testing should be encouraged. Fully vaccinated students, teachers, and staff with no COVID symptoms do not need to quarantine at home following an exposure to someone with COVID but should get tested days after exposure.
In addition to wearing masks in school, they should wear a mask in other indoor public settings for 14 days or until they receive a negative test. School systems also must ensure that students with limited-English language skills receive effective counseling. Title IX of the Education Amendments of protects students from discrimination based on sex in programs and activities receiving Federal financial assistance.
The ED regulation for Title IX contains a specific prohibition against discrimination in counseling or guidance of students. The requirements of the regulation are summarized below.
A counselor may not use different materials in testing or guidance based on the student's sex unless this is essential in eliminating bias and then, provided the materials cover the same occupations and interest areas. Where use of a particular test or other instrument results in disproportionate number of members of one sex in any course of study or classification, a school must make sure the instrument is not discriminatory or administered in a discriminatory manner.
Schools are required to develop and use internal procedures for ensuring that materials for appraising or counseling students are nondiscriminatory.
If a school finds that a particular class is disproportionately male or female, it must make sure this situation did not result because of sex-biased counseling or the use of discriminatory counseling or appraisal methods. Section of the Rehabilitation Act of protects students from discrimination based on handicap in programs and activities receiving Federal financial assistance. The civil rights statutory and regulatory requirements prohibit counselors, as agents of recipients of Federal financial assistance, from engaging in unlawful discriminatory practices.
The programs which have been instituted may be applicable to other school systems to support counselors in ensuring equal educational opportunity and improving counseling services for special target groups. This section summarizes several of these programs and activities.
Counselors can work with teachers to review career education and curricular materials to ensure they do not create or perpetuate stereotypes or limitations based on race, color, national origin, sex, or handicap.
Some schools are using materials that portray males or females, minorities or handicapped persons in programs and occupations in which these groups traditionally have not been substantially represented. Others are encouraging teachers to include biographical readings about men and women, minorities, and handicapped persons in careers in which they are traditionally underrepresented. In some school systems, counselors are given training in identifying subtle and overt bias in career materials and in eliminating bias in these materials.
These programs aim at early provision of counseling services for students who express interest in pursuing postsecondary education. In some school districts with high enrollment of minority students, counselors are designated to specialize in the early identification and support of students with potential for higher education attainment.
Services are often extended in small group sessions. Other intervention programs seek to identify underprepared college-oriented students. In one "college access" program, disadvantaged minority students, beginning in ninth grade, are encouraged to meet college admission requirements by placement in more challenging classes than they would have normally taken on their own.
Some programs are also attempting to cultivate or stimulate greater interest in nontraditional academic areas and careers for minorities, women, and handicapped students during the intervention process.
In some states, school systems are receiving the support of State education agencies in developing comprehensive and coordinated pupil service programs including social work and psychological services and health care in support of their early intervention activities. Recent research suggests that low-income minority students are least likely to receive adequate counseling on higher education opportunities. Other research is reporting that intensive "hands-on" counseling is most effective.
In one inner city high school, where 75 percent of students are from families receiving public assistance, counseling has been made central to student development. Students 90 percent are from minority groups are provided numerous opportunities to visit colleges, meet informally with a wide range of college recruiters and use school telephones to make long distance inquiries to colleges throughout the country. Since , approximately 70 percent of the school's graduates have enrolled in higher education programs.
A critical issue for many minority students from low income families is financial aid. In response to this problem, some school counseling programs are providing financial aid workshops for students and parents. In one high school that enrolls a high proportion of minority students from low income families, counselors are available to review any student's application for college admission and financial assistance before it is submitted to an institution. In another high school that enrolls a high proportion of language minority students, information on the availability of financial aid is communicated to these students and their parents in the language they understand.
Some counselors also are making efforts to advise minority and handicapped students of special services programs established at certain colleges and universities.
These programs aim at facilitating academic adjustment and increasing the retention of minority and handicapped students. In order to avoid "steering" minorities, women, and handicapped students toward more restrictive career objectives, many counselors require updated information about the dynamics of the labor force. Certain school districts are establishing programs to ensure that counselors are apprised of the most recent occupational outlook data.
Some schools arrange workshops so that employers can present information to counselors on emerging opportunities in new fields. These sessions also allow counselors to gain first-hand understanding of developments and occupational forecasts in specific industries and organizations.
In turn, counselors can disseminate this information to students so they can consider a broader range of options. There are other ways to involve the resources of the business community. Some schools arrange for minority, women, and handicapped role models from occupations in which these groups traditionally have been underrepresented e. This also encourages students to explore nontraditional occupations.
Other businesses are participating in summer internship programs that combine high school credit with employment. These programs also encourage students' further educational attainment in their linking academic preparation with job requirements. Some counselors arrange for representatives of the business community to conduct group sessions on preparing resumes and job interview skills. While these programs are normally open to all students, counselors can take special measures to ensure the participation of special population groups.
Cooperation with colleges and universities can take many forms to encourage future postsecondary attendance. Successful collaborative projects are often small scale initiatives. They can include special field trips to local colleges and the conduct of financial aid workshops and survival skills by college counseling staff. Admissions officers at one university visit high schools to recruit handicapped students and explain what accommodations are available. Some institutions of higher education are reporting students' academic performance back to individual feeder schools to enable them to make appropriate adjustments in educational curricula and student preparation.
School counselors can assist parents in becoming partners in broadening career exploration and expanding career planning.
Many programs are providing parents with career development seminars, guidebooks, role-playing opportunities, community resources and parent support systems.
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